Yak
Created | Updated Jan 1, 2008
Whoa there! You certainly can move for such a big animal. It's just as well you're so shy and nimble on your feet. Your kind has been almost hunted to extinction - like many another large species of animal around the world. There are just a few thousand of you left. Your little cousins, the domesticated yaks, seem to be doing alright though. There are millions of them.
All those millions of mini-yaks .... actually, that could be misleading. Let's get this straight. It's the male, domesticated yak that's called a 'yak' - or that's one of the things it's called and the domesticated female of the species, is called a 'nak' - and a few other things. And you great, wild, chaps are called 'drongs' by some and 'wild yaks' by others. Well, that's what you're called by that other species: the species that domesticated some of the your ancestors - and reduced the numbers and range of you wild animals to the present, pathetic levels. Do you mind what people call you? Will 'yak' do?
Anyway, to get back to all those millions of mini-yaks:
What do you think of them? They're like midgets compared to you. Sometimes you interbreed with them. That must be a ticklish operation when a wild bull, six and a half feet at the shoulder, courts a little lady, not much more than half his size. In isolation, or among her sisters, she looks big and strong, but next to you, she looks almost like a fragile little toy.
It's not all fun and frolics though, is it? You seem to like your smaller cousins well enough. They're more docile than you - lovers, rather than fighters. But there is a dark side to the relationship, don't you think? Food is scarce up in the high pastures. It's dry and low in nutrients. It's hard for you to find enough to eat with all the high, wild areas grazed by the domesticated hordes. And then there are the diseases they carry and you catch ....
When you're chased off your pastures, hunted for food and sport, your calves taken away from you - do you ever envy the ones who are domesticated, cross bred with domestic cattle and are, apparently, safe from the predations of that other species? You don't envy them do you? You've resisted all attempts to domesticate you since that first and only domestication of wild drongs took place, thousands of years ago. You refuse to co-operate. You put your foot down and dig your heels in. And if they can't have you one way, they simply take you another way: they hunt you to the edge of extinction.
You're not intimidated though, are you? Your behaviour speaks for itself: 'death before slavery'. That's right. It doesn't look good. But who knows? You might survive as a species. That other species might have a change of heart. They might learn to control their worst instincts. They might wipe themselves out before they succeed in wiping you out. Who knows? Is that what you're counting on?
You don't like the heat, do you? Little wonder, considering the length and thickness of your hair. And you have some other adaptations that help you to do well in the low temperatures and high elevations that would kill most other species. You have a greater lung capacity and your blood can carry far more oxygen than the lowland cattle. How do you find it, up there on the exposed mountain-side, in the howling blizzard? Pleasantly cool?
The emperor penguin, the polar bear and you, can tolerate -40 degrees C, while most of the rest of life-kind prefers a warmer clime. Whereas the emperors find the chill that suits them in the southern polar region and the polar bears find conditions agreeable towards the north pole, you have to find your preferred cool zone by moving to higher ground in the warm season. The polar regions wouldn't suit you herbivores. You might be able to tolerate the colder temperatures even higher up the mountains, but you can't survive where there's no grass, lichens and mosses.
You are a fine and noble beast with your elegant horns, your impressive, shaggy coat and your great size. Please continue to flee when you see the men with guns approaching your herds. Don't let them kill you and don't let them enslave you. Resist domestication and extinction. Too much that was wild and free has already disappeared. Wild places and wild animals make Planet Earth rich. You are part of the fabulous tapestry and without you, the world will be poorer.
All those millions of mini-yaks .... actually, that could be misleading. Let's get this straight. It's the male, domesticated yak that's called a 'yak' - or that's one of the things it's called and the domesticated female of the species, is called a 'nak' - and a few other things. And you great, wild, chaps are called 'drongs' by some and 'wild yaks' by others. Well, that's what you're called by that other species: the species that domesticated some of the your ancestors - and reduced the numbers and range of you wild animals to the present, pathetic levels. Do you mind what people call you? Will 'yak' do?
Anyway, to get back to all those millions of mini-yaks:
What do you think of them? They're like midgets compared to you. Sometimes you interbreed with them. That must be a ticklish operation when a wild bull, six and a half feet at the shoulder, courts a little lady, not much more than half his size. In isolation, or among her sisters, she looks big and strong, but next to you, she looks almost like a fragile little toy.
It's not all fun and frolics though, is it? You seem to like your smaller cousins well enough. They're more docile than you - lovers, rather than fighters. But there is a dark side to the relationship, don't you think? Food is scarce up in the high pastures. It's dry and low in nutrients. It's hard for you to find enough to eat with all the high, wild areas grazed by the domesticated hordes. And then there are the diseases they carry and you catch ....
When you're chased off your pastures, hunted for food and sport, your calves taken away from you - do you ever envy the ones who are domesticated, cross bred with domestic cattle and are, apparently, safe from the predations of that other species? You don't envy them do you? You've resisted all attempts to domesticate you since that first and only domestication of wild drongs took place, thousands of years ago. You refuse to co-operate. You put your foot down and dig your heels in. And if they can't have you one way, they simply take you another way: they hunt you to the edge of extinction.
You're not intimidated though, are you? Your behaviour speaks for itself: 'death before slavery'. That's right. It doesn't look good. But who knows? You might survive as a species. That other species might have a change of heart. They might learn to control their worst instincts. They might wipe themselves out before they succeed in wiping you out. Who knows? Is that what you're counting on?
You don't like the heat, do you? Little wonder, considering the length and thickness of your hair. And you have some other adaptations that help you to do well in the low temperatures and high elevations that would kill most other species. You have a greater lung capacity and your blood can carry far more oxygen than the lowland cattle. How do you find it, up there on the exposed mountain-side, in the howling blizzard? Pleasantly cool?
The emperor penguin, the polar bear and you, can tolerate -40 degrees C, while most of the rest of life-kind prefers a warmer clime. Whereas the emperors find the chill that suits them in the southern polar region and the polar bears find conditions agreeable towards the north pole, you have to find your preferred cool zone by moving to higher ground in the warm season. The polar regions wouldn't suit you herbivores. You might be able to tolerate the colder temperatures even higher up the mountains, but you can't survive where there's no grass, lichens and mosses.
You are a fine and noble beast with your elegant horns, your impressive, shaggy coat and your great size. Please continue to flee when you see the men with guns approaching your herds. Don't let them kill you and don't let them enslave you. Resist domestication and extinction. Too much that was wild and free has already disappeared. Wild places and wild animals make Planet Earth rich. You are part of the fabulous tapestry and without you, the world will be poorer.
